Robbery gang found guilty

A jury yesterday convicted four men of being part of the gang whose crime spree only ended when the mastermind and his accomplice were shot dead by police.

Terence Wallace, 26, Adrian Johnson, 28, Leroy Wilkinson, 29, and Victor Iniodu, 34, all from south London, were members of a mob who targeted security vans making cash deliveries to banks, amassing £500,000 across southern England.

Raids took place in Oxford, Bristol, Bath, Cambridgeshire, Hampshire, Reading, Ipswich and Gloucestershire between April 2006 and September 2007.

In December 2006 the gang turned its attentions on Swindon and hit the HSBC bank at Gorse Hill in a raid that landed them £25,000.

During the raid a man approached the guard and demanded the cashbox and then punched him.

The robber, who was wearing cycling clothing dragged him to the back of the van and demanded more money from inside.

He shouted to an accomplice who produced a gun. A member of the public tried to intervene but was shown the pistol and warned off.

The guard was punched to the floor and the men made off with a cash box and ran off down an alley to a tatty red Vauxhall Corsa to make their getaway from Swindon.

The 18-month long spree was ended when a police marksman shot ringleader Mark Nunes, and accomplice Andrew Markland, dead during a foiled raid in Hampshire.

During the month-long trial at Kingston Crown Court, the jury heard that 35-year-old Nunes’ “luck ran out” when he was gunned down as he held a pistol to the head of a security guard close to a branch of HSBC.

Markland, 36, was also shot dead when he tried to pick up the weapon.

Getaway driver Wallace and other gang members Johnson, Wilkinson and Iniodu were found guilty by the jury of conspiracy to rob.

Johnson was also convicted of a separate robbery committed last November but acquitted of possessing a gas canister.

The jury could not agree a verdict on the charge of Johnson possessing a gun and a not guilty verdict was formally entered on this count.

All four had denied the charges during a seven-week trial at Kingston Crown Court in south west London.

Three other men – Leroy Hall, Leon McKenzie and Brian Henry – pleaded guilty to being part of Nunes’ gang before the trial began.

The whole gang will be sentenced later.

‘I felt a mixture of shock and anger’

WHEN the gang hit the security van outside Gorse Hill’s HSBC father-of-two Paul Reens found himself staring down the barrel of a gun.

The forklift driver faced a pistol for what he described as “a lifetime” while two robbers held up the Securicor driver.

The 30-year-old from Uffington had answered a cry for help as he waited to pay in money at HSBC.

He said: “An elderly man with a crutch came rushing in and shouted ‘He needs help’.

“I ran outside and saw the guard being held up by two men.

“They had a security box and were asking for more money.

“One of them shouted at me to back away and pointed a small gun in my direction. I couldn’t believe it, all I could think of was missing Christmas with my family for something so pointless.

“I tried to edge back, but I didn’t want to move too quickly because they still had the gun pointed at me.

“After about a minute they got nervous and ran away along Edinburgh Road.

“I didn’t know what to do afterwards.

“I have never been in a situation like that before.

“I felt a mixture of shock and anger, it happened so quickly and they were so aggressive.”

Even worse for Mr Reens was the fact his wife Louise and son James were in the family car close by as the drama unfolded.

He said: “Our car was parked within a few yards of where the security van was.

“My wife said she saw the two men grab the guard and at first it looked like they knew each other.

“It was only when they pulled out the gun that she ducked down and told James to look away. I can’t imagine what she was going through, knowing that I was out there in the line of fire.”

The bank, where robbers got away with thousands of pounds, shut down in February last year.